UNION CHAPEL

FEBRUARY 2017

UNION CHAPEL

FEBRUARY 2017

2017-18

Do you have a child or know someone with a child starting kindergarten in the fall? We are now taking kindergarten information for the 2017-18 school year for children who will be five years old on or before July 31 this year. Please contact Susan Sadler in the Union Chapel office at 816.359.4310 for more details. Kindergarten registration and roundup information will be available soon!

What's Going on in Fourth Grade?

On February 17, our fourth graders will take a field trip to see the Steamboat Arabia. Students have been learning about the Westward Expansion time period. We’ve discussed how pioneers used rivers for travel and as early highways for transporting goods. We’re also learning in science how erosion can change the course of a river, which explains how this legendary steamboat was recovered from a field!

No-Tax-Increase Bond Issue

Spotlight on Bond Projects: High School Plans

Among the projects in the no-tax-increase bond issue on the April 4 ballot is a facility for high-school students. Meeting the needs of our high-school students and their class sizes is part of the long-range facility plan, which is based on our enrollment growth.

The first step of this plan is a leased space, which will be the first home of the LEAD Innovation Studio. Starting next school year, some Park Hill High School and Park Hill South High School students will learn at LEAD. This will free up classroom space while giving these students a flexible, personalized learning environment, focused on problem-solving skills, project-based learning and professional experiences.

If approved, the no-tax-increase bond issue will pay to build a district-owned facility designed for the needs of the LEAD students. It would also be the first phase of a full high school, so that we could build onto it if we get enough enrollment. Although our current projections show that our growth could slow, our patrons told us during the public-input stages of our long-range planning process that they preferred a new high school.

In keeping with that feedback, this is a conservative plan that allows us to wait and see whether we need an entire high school.

Other Projects

The no-tax-increase bond issue also includes these projects:

A new elementary school

A new middle school

A district warehouse and support services facility to support our classrooms and maintain our facilities

Improvements to existing facilities

If economic conditions leave enough proceeds from the bond issue, we would also

Build a transportation center, which could save us money on busing

Pay for maintenance projects in our existing facilities

It is possible to pay for these projects with no tax increase because of our Board’s careful money management and good financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Thanks to good financial management by the district, Park Hill is in a position to ask for a bond without raising taxes. This is a result of aggressively paying off existing debts and refinancing for better rates. Local commercial and residential growth has also helped by expanding the local tax base. Because of these factors, we have room in our state-set debt limit to take on additional debt with no tax increase. We will continue to carefully monitor our debt and interest rates in order to save taxpayer dollars.

Thanks to their conservative budgeting, we have enough room in our debt service levy to issue bonds to cover the cost of these new schools and projects with no tax increase.

Park Hill Star

The Park Hill Star recognition program was started in 2015 to celebrate support staff and teachers whose work is especially noteworthy. Recently, PHSD Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd visited Union Chapel to congratulate three staff members who were nominated by parents and students. Pictures of these visits are below.

Click here to see who at Union Chapel has been recognized through the Park Hill Star Program last year and this year so far: UC Recognitions

The following is an overview of the Park Hill Star Program:

Our employees are the reason we are so successful here in the Park Hill School District, and we would like to recognize them for all they do for our students.

That is why we present the Park Hill Star award once a month to a pre-K or elementary teacher, a secondary teacher and a support employee.

Anyone can nominate an employee for this award by using the form below. It asks you to share how your nominee demonstrates our district values of continuous improvement, high expectations, integrity, visionary leadership and student focus. You can also share how your nominee supports the goals in our district’s strategic plan.